Saturday, 28 March 2015

Facebook sees a world beyond
gaming and entertainment for its virtual reality headset, meaning social
networking will soon take a step into VR if the company gets its way: photo by Tom Dymond/REX via the Guardian, 27 March 2015

Beijing.
Officials talk through a painted backdrop of the Great Wall of China
before the arrival of the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena: photo by Feng Li via The Guardian, 26 March 2015

Beyond Gaming: The Limitations of Mimicry

Panda costumes hang at the
Wolong National Nature Reserve in China, Keepers who interact with the pandas
must wear costumes in order to mimic conditions of the wild. The
costumes are made to smell like pandas too: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

Keepers move a panda to a new
part of the reserve as part of its training at the
Wolong National Nature Reserve in China. Pandas learn to find their
own food and water, look for shelter and become aware of their
environment: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

Wolong National Nature Reserve, China. Director Nicolas Brown and
Dr. M. Sanjayan, dressed as trees, wait with cameraman Robin Cox in the
panda suit to film a new series to air next year on wildlife and
humans for PBS and National Geographic TV: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

A panda is moved to its next level of training at China's
Wolong National Nature Reserve: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

Panda keepers wait for a panda to leave its cage into the Wolong National Nature Reserve at the
Wolong National Nature Reserve in China: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

A researcher dressed in a panda costume puts a panda cub into a box
before its physical examination at the Hetaoping Research and
Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature
Reserve, China: photo by Reuters via The Guardian, 7 December 2010

Four giant pandas at a Chinese rescue centre have died from the canine distemper virus: Photograph: AFP via The Guardian, 6 February 2015

Beyond Gaming: The Shrinking World of the Living: Pablo Neruda: Keeping Quiet

A golden langur on an island in the Umananda river in Guwahati, in Assam. The langur is one of India’s most endangered primates: photo by Partha Hazarika/Barcroft India via the Guardian, 27 March 2015

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

Kolkata, India. Jalada Prasad, a six-month-old male Indian one-horned rhinoceros, runs
around his enclosure on his debut in front of the public at Alipore
Zoological Garden: photo by Bikas Das/AP via The Guardian, 27 March 2015

For once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

An Indian one horned rhino
in the Kaziranga national park, Assam, India. The park is a rhino
sanctuary and is helping to revive the species and protect them from
poachers: photo by Paul Hilton/HSI via The Guardian, 8 January 2015

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Naypyitaw, Burma.
A baby elephant, which was found in a river during the rainy season,
plays with white elephants, seen as sacred signs of good fortune, peace
and wealth: photo by Damir Sagolj / Reuters via The Guardian, 12 November 2014

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Mahouts
return home with their elephantscarrying grass to feed them on the eve
of the rhino census in Kaziranga national park in Assam, India: photo by TR/EPA via The Guardian, 27 March 2015

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

Assam, India. Forest
officials count rhinos during a census at Kaziranga national park. The
census takes place every two years, with 2,329 rhinos counted in 2013: photo by Biju Boro/AFPvia The Guardian, 27 March 2015

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

A billboard in Hanoi,
Vietnam, reads: ‘Rhino horns are just like buffalo horns, human hair and
nail. Do not waste your money,’ to mark the World Rhino Day on 22
September. This year’s theme was ‘Five rhino species forever.’: photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA via The Guardian, 26 September 2014

A herd of wild
elephants with newborns crosses a tea garden to enter a paddy field in
Sonitpur, Assam, India. According to reports, five people have been
killed by the herd in the last two months and it has destroyed a large
area of ripe paddy fields: photo by STR/EPA via The Guardian, 28 November 2014

Global Gaming: The Law of the Stronger

An Indian man feeds an elephant, which is hired out for weddings and parties, on the banks of the river Yamuna, New Delhi: photo by Money Sharma/AFP via The Guardian, 7 February 2015

Tiger (Panthera
tigris).
A Sumatran tiger named Dara, trapped by tiger poachers. Indonesian
conservationists have found 120 traps set up by poachers to snare
critically endangered Sumatran tigers in Kerinci Seblat national park,
according to officials. Poaching is the greatest immediate threat to this endangered
species, of which there are as few as 3,200 in the wild.According
to Traffic, parts from a minimum of 1,590 tigers were seized between
January 2000 and April 2014 – an average of two animals per week. Every
part of the tiger — from whisker to tail — is traded on the black
market. Tigers are mounted as trophies, skins worn as status symbols,
and their parts used in traditional medicine, as tonics and folk
remedies: photo by Kerinci Seblat National Park/AFP via The Guardian, 7 February 2015

Two sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) at the Vietnam Bear rescue centre in Tam Dao national park, Vietnam. The
bear’s gall bladders are used in traditional Chinese medicine and
although bile is milked from commercially farmed bears, wild bears are
often taken to stock or restock these small farms. Bear meat,
particularly the paws, is considered a culinary delicacy. Killing bears
is illegal in all bear range countries but is largely uncontrolled. The
species is extinct in Singapore and has possibly become extinct in
Bangladesh and China. They are banned from international commercial
trade: photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Proboscis
monkey (Nasalis larvatus). This endangered species is endemic to Borneo
and found in Brunei, Indonesia (Kalimantan) and Malaysia (Sabah and
Sarawak). It
is poached for the illegal pet trade and bush meat, and is also hunted
for bezoar stones, an intestinal secretion, used in traditional
medicine. In Sarawak, less than 1,000 animals are thought to remain with
populations in Borneo ranging between 1,000 and just 100. Banned from
international commercial trade: photo by Suzi Eszterhas/Corbis via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Asian rhino (Rhinocerotidae spp.). There are fewer than 4,000 wild rhinos in Asia. All
three Asian species are highly targeted for their horns. Two, the Javan
and Sumatran rhinos are critically endangered. The animals are killed
and their horns sawn off and smuggled to their destination markets in
Asia: photo by STR/EPA via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus)
are among the most heavily traded species in Southeast Asia with
approximately 340,000 skins exported annually for use in the fashion
industry.Although more than 20% of exports are declared as
captive-bred, a Traffic report argues that the cost of breeding, feeding
and maintaining the snakes to reach slaughter size appears much higher
than the market price. A skin sold in an Indonesian village for $30 can
fetch up to $15,000 as a python skin handbag from a famous fashion house: photo by Mark Conlin/Alamy via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

The Burmese star tortoise (Geochelone platynota), is a critically endangered species native to Burma. It
is used for meat and traditional medicines in Asia and is highly sought
after for the international pet trade, with collectors in Europe and
North America willing to pay thousands of dollars for an individual.
There are concerns that there may now be no viable wild populations.
Commercial harvest and trade of this species is illegal under Burmese
law, although export of captive specimens is permitted from one facility
within the country, which also contributes to a future release program: photo by Minden Pictures/Corbis via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

A slow loris carried by a
wildlife department official in Kuala Lumpur. It was among animals
estimated to be worth $20,000, including juvenile eagles and a Malayan
sun bear cub, seized during an operation against illegal wildlife
traders earlier this month: photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters via the Guardian, 27 March 2015

Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) are among the most trafficked mammals in Asia.Sunda
pangolin are critically endangered and IUCN reports that wild
populations have halved in the past 15 years. They are in high demand
both for their meat and for their scales, which are used in traditional
medicine — and as love charms. Tens of thousands of Sunda pangolins have
been poached from the wild, headed primarily to China where it is
considered a luxury food: photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Gaming the Wild: Pangolin

Often known as scaly
anteaters, pangolins are the only mammal with scales. Their closest
relatives are anteaters, armadillos and sloths. These two will end up on
a dinner table in Gunagzhou, southern China, one of the areas of the
world where their flesh is considered a delicacy. The illegal trade in
pangolins is estimated to be worth about $19bn (£12.7bn) a year: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

A
critically endangered pangolin curls up into a ball to resemble a giant
pine cone as a poacher nears the tree where it is trying to hide: photo by Paul Hilton for
WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

A poacher catches a juvenile sunda pangolin in Indonesia: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Poachers across
Indonesia sell critically endangered live pangolins to middlemen for $28
(£18.70) to $31 per kilo; the average size of a pangolin is six to
seven kg.: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Already this year 125kg of pangolin scales were intercepted by the
Indonesian authorities en route to Hong Kong: photo by Paul Hilton for
WildAid via the Guardian, 10 March 2015

A
poacher holds up the skin of a pangolin with the scales still attached:
photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

The sunda pangolin (Manis javanica)
is one of two Asian species of pangolin listed as critically endangered
on the IUNC red list: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the
Guardian 10 March 2015

Pangolin are a bit
like a friendly, flightless dragons. Many of them have no problem being
around people: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Palm oil plantations,
such as this one covering thousands of hectares, are causing
habitat-loss for many Indonesian species, although pangolins are one of a
few that have limited tolerance to palm-oil habitats. The average
monthly wage for an Indonesian working full-time on a plantation is $47
and many turn to poaching because they can earn 10 times as much: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015